Principles from psychology to enhance pre-K to 12 teaching and learning.
Teaching and learning are intricately linked to social and behavioral factors of human development, including cognition, motivation, social interaction and communication. Psychological science has much to contribute to working with a wide range of students including those who are labeled gifted, talented or creative. We present here the most important principles from psychology – the Top 20 – that would be of greatest use in the context of pre-K to 12 classroom teaching and learning with gifted children and youth. We encourage consideration and practice of the Top 20 throughout all teacher preparation programs and gifted education licensure to ensure a solid foundation of psychological knowledge in pre-K to 12 instruction of gifted students.
It is important to note that there is no universal definition of giftedness, talent and creativity and how each should be measured. For ease of readership, the term gifted in this resource stands more generally for gifted, talented and creative.
